Our Team

Dr. Quynh Doan

Investigator and Pediatric Emergency Physician, BC Children’s Hospital

Kenneth McKinley, M.D.

Junior Investigator/Collaborator and Pediatric Emergency Physician, Children’s National Hospital

Kenneth McKinley, M.D., is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine at George Washington University and a pediatric emergency medicine attending at Children’s National Hospital, in Washington, DC. Dr. McKinley began his research career under the mentorship of Dr. Doan, applying complex computational models to predict the impact of system changes on pediatric ED throughput. He is now focused on the application of machine learning algorithms to develop prediction models for specific pediatric populations that present to the Emergency Department, including patients presenting with chief complaints related to sickle cell disease, asthma, or behavioral health. By creating robust risk prediction models for patients presenting with these complaints, Dr. McKinley’s work aims to enhance care for these patients, improve patient throughput generally, and help address the problem of ED crowding.

Karly Stillwell

Research Coordinator

Karly is a Research Coordinator in the Doan Lab, and has been working with the lab since May 2014. Karly graduated from UBC with a Combined Major in Science. In her free time, she enjoys baking new cookie recipes, playing soccer, and traveling.

Zainab Zeyan

Co-op Student

Zainab is an undergraduate student, completing her B.Sc at UBC in Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience. Her research interest began as a patient partner in asthma and COPD studies with the VCH Research Institute, and her lived experiences have since guided her work in pediatric respiratory research at BC Children’s Hospital. Currently, Zainab is a Co-op student in the Doan Lab supporting various projects including the implementation of MyHEARTSMAP, a psychosocial self-assessment tool, in the Pediatric Emergency Department at BCCH. She is also involved with BCCH’s Health Bridge Program which collaborates with health professionals and patients to co-design initiatives that address the unmet health information needs of families across BC. Aside from her research interests, Zainab enjoys reading, doing various textile-related projects and spending time outdoors.

Alyssa Chong

Alyssa is a MSc student at UBC in the Women+ and Children's Health Sciences program. Currently, she is conducting her research on HEARTSMAP-U, a psychosocial self-assessment tool for university students. Her thesis will specifically be looking at understanding how sociodemographic factors impact the help-seeking behaviours of students who have been recommended resources through HEARTSMAP-U. Outside of her studies, Alyssa enjoys playing volleyball, going to pilates and is a big hockey fan.

Erica McDonald

Erica is a first year MD/PhD student supervised by Dr. Doan. Prior to joining UBC, she studied at the University of Waterloo where she completed a BSc in Health Studies and a MSc with a focus on youth mental health and epidemiology. Outside of her studies, she enjoys spending time with her dog Blu, yoga, running, and any adventure that involves ice cream.

Zelyn Lee

Zelyn is a Master's student in the Women+ and Children's Health Sciences program at UBC. She earned her bachelor's degree from the University of Toronto, majoring in Neuroscience and Physiology. Zelyn is passionate about health literacy and accessibility within the community and has worked on multiple projects, such as improving financial access for individuals with developmental disabilities and transitional support for youth with sickle cell disease at SickKids Hospital. For her Master's thesis, Zelyn is culturally adapting MyHEARTSMAP into Chinese to make this evidence-based mental health screening and resource navigation tool more inclusive and accessible for Chinese youth and families. She aims to promote the importance of creating culturally informed mental health care alongside community stakeholders to address the diverse mental health needs of Canada's multi-ethnocultural population. 

Yury Onikashvili

Yury is a first year grad student in the Women’s and Children’s Health Science program. He has been involved with the Doan lab since late 2020. After being a research assistant for a pilot project investigating the use of IV ketamine for acute suicidality in pediatrics, he has decided to pursue a thesis investigating patient and family perspectives on scales used to measure suicidality to better inform future study design. In his free time Yury likes to boulder and play volleyball.

Kayla Campbell

Kayla is a UBC alumni with a bachelors in kinesiology. Their introduction to research was through a global project consisting of 7 countries assessing the sexual, reproductive and health rights of Indigenous women, girls, non-binary and Two Spirited people living with HIV. They are currently working at BC Children's in the Doan Lab, analyzing data collected with the HEARTSMAP-U mental health tool and exploring the connection between the collected data and Indigenous students at UBC. Besides their current experience and research topics, they are interested in research around biomechanics and biomedical devices that help with human movement. They are dedicated and eager to contribute towards building equity and efficiency in healthcare. Outside of their academic interests, some of their hobbies include surfing, watching WSL events, playing video games, and finding new coffee orders.

Troy Chong

Troy is a fourth year student majoring in Microbiology and Immunology. He is passionate about providing health interventions for the pediatric population and marginalized groups. In addition to the START team, he is currently involved with work at the Canucks Autism Network. In his spare time, he is a competitive curler and loves hiking and running!​

Jake Rose

Jake Rose is a fourth-year medical student studying at McGill University. Since 2022, he has been working in the Doan Lab to help develop a physician-centred Standardized Workload Assessment Metric for Pediatric Emergency Departments (known as SWAMPED). His other research interests include point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) education, the development of low-cost procedural task trainers, and addressing language barriers in the ED. Outside of research and medicine, Jake enjoys playing a variety of sports, traveling, and spending time with loved ones.

Rebecca Liu

Rebecca is a first year medical student at UBC. She is passionate about promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion in science. In her free time, she enjoys creating medical illustrations, tutoring children, and finding fun places to eat in Vancouver.

Ravia Arora

Research Assistant

Ravia is a recent behavioural neuroscience and immunology graduate from UBC. She is passionate about art, neuroscience and mental health advocacy. Ravia holds leadership positions in various mental health organizations and student teams and hopes to pursue further education in this field. She is primarily involved as a research assistant on the HEARTSMAP-U project.

Sydney Sparanese

Sydney is in her final year of medical school at UBC after completing a BSc at the University of Calgary. In the Doan Lab, she has contributed to projects focusing on the psychosocial impact on recovery from concussion in youth. Currently, she is investigating the utility of MyHEARTSMAP amongst patients admitted to BC Children's Hospital. 

Ian Pierce

Ian is a third year medical student at Monash University in Australia. He joined the Doan Lab in 2021, as a member of the MYHEARTSMAP Inpatient Study team. Ian’s research and career interests centre on improving patient outcomes in Emergency Medicine. An avid snowboarder and surfer, Ian also enjoys playing Australian rules football for the university team.

Ann Chen

Ann is a UBC medical student working with the MyHEARTSMAP team in the Doan Lab. She is interested in health informatics and learning about how digital health can enhance and improve patient care. In her spare time, Ann enjoys hiking around Vancouver, practicing calligraphy and hand lettering, or playing badminton with the UBC Badminton Club.

Justin Park
Mikayla Fan
Meghan Glibbery
Shane Murphy
Aman Atwal